


Pending

by fishfingersandjellybabies



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 04:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9305738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishfingersandjellybabies/pseuds/fishfingersandjellybabies
Summary: It turns out, Bruce wasn’t the only Batman who was going to adopt his Robin.





	

**Author's Note:**

> AU-ish where Bruce stayed dead the first time, and after Damian was killed, Talia stayed dead too. I don’t know how adoptions work, all this garbage was literally taken from the panels where Bruce adopted Dick, including some of the dialogue. Damian’s 13-ish. Title taken from when I was in the process of adopting my own Damian, his profile on the shelter just said ‘adoption pending’ so. I didn’t think I would get this done today, wow. Dick’s next step is giving Damian a real birthday too hahaha.

Tim stared, even as Cassandra plucked the pen from Dick’s hand, and leaned over the papers to sign.

“…Do you really know what you’re doing?” Tim asked quietly. “I mean, have you thought this through? _Really_ thought this through? No one’s…I mean, you’re not being mind-controlled are you? Or _forced_ to do this?”

Dick smiled. “Of course not. It’s something I’ve thought about for years.”

“And just so we’re clear, I’m not _against_ this. Not at all. Not for your sake or his, but.” Tim sighed. Looked at Jason for help. He wasn’t giving any. “This could change everything.”

“Will, probably.” Jason hummed. “I mean, look at your own experience.”

“I did.” Dick nodded. “And it didn’t change a thing. Bruce loved me and I loved him. And the papers just cemented the fact.”

“Sure, but that’s _you_.” Tim reminded. “And, as much as he tries to be, remember: Damian is _not_ Bruce.”

“No, he’s not.” Dick agreed. “And unlike Bruce, Damian is going to grow up loved and surrounded by family. Not alone with a butler in a big empty house.”

Tim looked at Cassandra, then back to Dick. “And…if he doesn’t want it?”

“Then we tear up the papers and act like they never existed.” Dick said simply. “Again, Tim. I’ve thought about this. For _years_. I’ve thought about how Damian might react. I’ve thought about how he looks at Bruce, and how he might see this gesture.”

“And?”

“And…I’m just going to say what Bruce said to me.” Dick smiled. “If it doesn’t work out-”

“We’ll catch the kid before he gets skiddish and runs away, and he can stay with one of us for a while until he cools down.” Jason nodded. Tim and Cassandra both glanced back at him. “…What? Dick isn’t the only one who… _likes_ the kid and wants him around.”

There was a beat of silence, and Tim sighed.

“You’re crazy, Dick.” And even with those words, he plucked the pen out of his sister’s hand and leaned down to sign the paper himself. “I know you two are close, but …you’re absolutely _crazy_.”

“…Yeah.” Dick hummed, as Tim finished his signature and slid the paper over to Dick. Dick held it up and looked at it like it was his most precious possession. “I’ve heard that before.”

~~

Of all places, he found him in Bruce’s old bedroom. And for the first time since he began this whole process, he paused.

_Was this a sign? Or a warning?_

He shook the thought away, deciding he’d never much believed in that fate garbage before – he sure as hell wasn’t going to start _now_.

“Damian?” He called while he knocked on the already open door. The child in question was lying on the bed on his back, his feet resting on the pillows. There was a book, too, so at some point Damian had been reading. But right now, said book was open, and lying pages-down on his face, his arms spread wide at his sides.

“What?” Was the muffled response. He sounded grumpy. Or annoyed. Or it was that tone he used when he was upset and couldn’t voice it the way he wanted to.

“You busy?”

“Do I _look_ busy?”

“Very.” Dick laughed, stepping into the room. “Think you might have a second to talk to me about something?”

Damian sighed, even as Dick approached, slowly dragging the book down so it was sitting on his chest. He blinked up at Dick and Dick grinned wider. “I suppose.”

Dick sat at the bottom of the bed as Damian closed the book, and turned himself around, mimicking Dick’s posture. Despite his age of almost-fourteen, his feet still dangled. And it wasn’t about _his_ size – but the size of Bruce’s far too large _bed_.

As soon as Damian was settled, he looked up expectantly. Dick exhaled and jumped right in.

“…You know I love you, right?” Dick asked softly. Damian’s eyes narrowed in confusion.

“…Sure?” Damian tried suspiciously.

“Do you know how _much_?”

Damian looked down and shrugged. “Enough to not send me back to my grandfather?” Then Damian chuckled, but it was a nervous sound. Like it was a joke to deflect his real emotions. “But I guess even _Drake_ likes me enough not to do that, so...I’m guessing you’re going to tell me it’s more than that.”

“I am.” Dick bounced their shoulders together. “I love you so much I let you move in with me. I love you so much I’d gladly cancel nights out with friends I haven’t seen in years to play video games with you.” Damian’s gaze was still lowered, like he felt guilty for those things. “I love you _so much_ , I’ll share my cereal with you. _Every_ day.”

That, at least, earned a laugh.

“I love you so much, I’d die for you.” Dick whispered. Damian looked up at that, eyes unsure and worried. “I love you so much I’d _kill_ for you too.”

“…Please don’t.” Damian returned softly, a testament to how far he’d come since they’d first met so many years ago. “Don’t do either of those things.”

Dick smiled, and shifted to pull the folded paper out of his back pocket. He held it out to Damian.

“I love you so much, I did this.”

Damian stared at the paper for a few seconds, before slowly taking it and unfolding it. Dick watched him read it. Watched as his eyes widened as he understood what it was for. What was happening.

“You don’t have to sign it, of course.” Dick hummed carefully. Faintly, he could hear Bruce saying these exact words to him, all those years ago. And he didn’t mean to say them almost word for word. Didn’t mean to sound almost exactly like _Bruce_ at all, but…they just felt right. “If you think it’s…frivolous or disrespectful to the memory of your parents, I’ll totally under-”

“Pen.”

Dick blinked. “…What?”

Damian didn’t look up at him, but held his hand out. “Give me a pen.”

“Oh.” His heart beat faster, even as he patted at himself. “Oh, I-”

“You give me something like this to sign-” Damian finally looked up, and there were tears in his eyes. “-and you don’t even bring a stupid _pen_ with you?!”

Damian’s tears fell in the silence. He sniffed loudly.

“Or did you expect me _not_ to want to sign it?!”

“…Oh, Damian.” Dick felt a smile melting onto his face, even as he reached out to wipe those tears.

Damian’s lip quivered, and he huffed, looking back down at the paper. A tear dripped onto the corner.

“No one…I mean. Not even Mother…” He stopped, gulped. Tried to continue. “Not even Mother made it so clear, her…her feelings for me. She and Father both died, and I will never know if they truly loved me or not.”

Dick waited. Not on purpose, truly he was trying to remember if there was a pen in Bruce’s bedroom or not. He did, in the end, remember one place. The drawer of the nightstand. For their lazy days, or when one of them was sick. Bruce would always do paperwork in bed.

Damian was still looking at the paper, so Dick chanced getting up to check the drawer. And sure enough, there was a pile of them in there. Red, blue, black…any color you could think of. Dick grabbed one at random, turned and stepped back around the bed to stand in front of Damian.

“…But you do. _You do,_ and you’ve spelled it out clearly.” Damian whispered, before Dick could hand him the instrument. Slowly, he looked back up at Dick, and Dick found his own love reflected easily, and ten-fold. “And…that is enough.”

Dick smiled down at him, holding out the pen. Damian took it instantly, curling his legs up to use as a makeshift desk. Carefully, Dick sat back down next to him, wrapping his arm around Damian’s shoulders. Damian leaned into him automatically, tongue sticking out of his mouth as he clicked the pen and quickly scribbled his name across the adoption papers.

“You know what I think, Damian?” Dick asked quietly, as Damian slowly lowered the pen, and the two of them stared at the page bearing their names. The proof of their new relationship. The one they’ve really already had for years.

“…Hm?”

Dick leaned down, pressing a kiss to Damian’s temple. “I think you’re enough too, kiddo.”

Damian kept the paper on his lap, but curled into Dick’s embrace even as Dick brought his other arm around to cocoon him. Returned the hug, in fact. Twisted the fabric of Dick’s shirt into his emotional fists.

Dick just grinned, and held his son tighter.

“You’re more than enough.”


End file.
